Double plug for roll-supporting cores



March 5, 1968 7 M. c. VOISSEM DOUBLE PLUG FOR ROLL-SUPPORTING CORES I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 2'7. 1967 INVENTOK Mam/m 0. V0155 EM BY W, W, Mum.

ATTQZNEY March 5, 1968 M. c. VOISSEM 3,371,775

DOUBLE PLUG FOR ROLL-SUPPORTING CQRES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 27, 1967 I N\/ ENT'OZ Mae/1N c. l o/ssem av AMMAZ, MW

A'rrozurys United States Patent r 3,371,776 DOUBLE PLUG FOR ROLL-SUPPORTING CORES Marvin C. Voissem, Appleton, Wis., assignor to Badger Plug Company, Appleton, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed Apr. 27, 1967, Ser. No. 634,206 12 Claims. (Cl. 206-65) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pair of plugs very slightly tapered for wedging insertion into the aligned cores of paper rolls and the like are connected by telescopic engagement back to back upon a sleeve (usually but not necessarily of boxboard stock) which may be detachably engaged frictionally with both plugs or may be cemented in place (but preferably to not more than one of the plugs). The flanges on the two plugs may be in face con-tact or may be spaced by engagement with opposite faces of an intervening panel apertured to pass the sleeve which connects the two plugs, such panel constituting a separator in a carton in which rolls mounted on the respective plugs are packed for shipment with theiraxes either vertical or horizontal.

Background of the invention In the past, mandrels have either been used for temporary or permanent mounting of plugs which support paper roll cores. In the alternative, there have been instances in which the flanges of such plugs have been cemented together, thus being precluded from operation when the cores are desired to be mounted individually on mandrels. Plugs cemented, welded, or staked together cannot be associated with separators such as panels unless the flanges of the respective plugs are cemented to the opposite faces of the panels, instead of to each other.

Summary of the invention The plugs may be metallic or non-metallic. The same slight taper which facilitates the wedging of the respective hollow plugs into the roll-supporting cores is used in accordance with the present invention to permit a sleeve to be telescoped and wedged into the opposing plugs so that anchorage of the plugs on the non-metallic sleeve is effective without adhesive and permits the plugs to be withdrawn from the sleeve for normal use individually, if desired. The primary use is merely to connect two rolls. For this purpose the plugs used need not be apertured. However, the plugs may have the usual apertures to receive a mandrel on which the roll equipped therewith may be mounted individually or with one or more other rolls. However, the dual plugs are usable for packaging and other purposes in individual cores as well as to provide a connection between cores.

The taper of the plugs is so slight that a non-metallic boxboard coupling sleeve will be frictionally retained in a given plug either when the plugs are forced into the sleeves into back to back contact or when the flanges of the plugs are slightly spaced so that a separator panel can be interposed between the plugs. Even if the coupling sleeve is adhesively connected to one of the plugs, this will not interfere with the mounting of that plug on a mandrel in the same manner as the plugs of a roll-supporting core could be mounted in the absence of the sleeve.

Brief description of the drawings In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation, partially broken away, of a pair of core plugs assembled back to back in accordance with the invention.

3,371,776 Patented Mar. 5, 1968 out any intervening partition, a mandrel and cores and paper rolls being fragmentarily illustrated.

FIG. 5 is a view in perspective showing a pallet with a plurality of rolls thereon, an additional roll and connector being in process of application thereto.

FIG. 6 is a view in side elevation showing a carton -in which rolls are to be shipped in horizontal alignment,

with a plurality of rolls and separators for supporting panels and plugs in mutually spaced positions for assembly to be inserted in the carton in accordance with this invention.

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 showing the parts in vertical alignment in mutually spaced positions preliminary to insertion in an appropriate carton.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a slightly modified plug device tor holding the work in alignment.

Detailed description In the composite plug assembly shown, the plugs 8 are individually conventional. Each comprises a very slightly tapered peripherally continuous conical hollow body portion 10 having at its larger open end 12 a radial flange 14. In FIG. 1 the flanges are back to back, being held 'frictionally by the telescopic engagement of the body portion 10 upon a non-metallic sleeve 20. The same taper which holds the plug in a core holds it to the sleeve. The smaller ends 22 of the respective plugs have end walls 24 apertured at 26 to receive a mandrel such as that shown at 28 in FIG. 4.

The sleeve 20 may either be square cut as indicated at 30 in FIG. 1 or may be chamfered as shown at 32.

The taper of the body portions 8 of the respective plugs is so slight that the plugs are readily wedged into the respective cores 34 upon which the paper rolls 36 are wound. The slightness of the taper permits the plugs to be forced over the coupling sleeve 20 until the flanges 14 are in face contact as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. However, by reason of the very slight taper, there will still be sufficient frictional engagement of plugs with the sleeve 20 to hold the plugs and sleeve in assembly even when the flanges 14 are spaced to receive an intervening panel 38 which is used to position the cores 34 and the paper rolls 36 wound thereon when assembled for shipment in a carton 40 as shown fragmentarily in FIG. 3.

Since one or both of the plugs can be withdrawn from frictional engagement with the sleeve 20, it is readily possible to separate the two plugs either by completely withdrawing the sleeve 20 from both plugs, or by leaving the sleeve connected with one of the plugs when the latter and its supported core are mounted on a mandrel. Another use of the projecting sleeve is for insertion into the aperture of a separator or supporting panel as shown, for example, in FIG. 6.

Pallet 42 shown in FIG. 5 has a platform 44 supporting a number of the paper rolls 36 with their cores 34 disposed vertically. The plug 8 may be a complete dual plug as heretofore described but FIG. 5 shows that it may also constitute a single plug having a projecting sleeve 20 which may be received into the core 34 of a roll 36' about to be mounted in superimposed position on one of the rolls 36 which is carried by the platform 44.

In the case of a horizontal carton, such as that shown at 48 in FIG. 6, support for the rolls 36 may be provided, without stressing the walls of the carton, by using singly or in pairs panels 38 which support the sleeves 20 either of a dual plug as shown at the middle of FIG. 6 or single plugs 8 as at the ends of the assembly as shown at the left and right. In such an arrangement, the fit of the sleeves 20 in the panel 38 may be sufficiently loose to permit the respective rolls to rotate within the carton for dispensing a web which forms a roll.

FIG. 7 shows a vertical carton at 50 which has any desired number of horizontal panels 38 to position any number of vertically aligned rolls 36. Here again the intermediate panel 38 may receive the sleeve 20 of a dual plug whereas the panels at the ends of the series may have merely the conventionally used plugs 8 passing through the panels and engaged in the respective cores 34.

FIG. 8 shows an alternate arrangement using a single plug at 8 with a sleeve 20 extending through the panel merely to rotate loosely the roll 36 which is to be superimposed.

As will be apparent from the foregoing, the arrangement is very much more versatile than any previous assembly of dual plugs, since it permits the plugs either to be used in face to face assembly as in FIGS. 1 to 4 or to be used in slightly spaced relationship for mounting on an intervening panel as in FIG. 3.

I claim:

1. In combination, a core plug having a hollow peripherally continuous core-engaging body of circular cross section having a slight conical taper, and a sleeve telescopically engaged in such body and frictionally wedged therein.

2. A combination according to claim 1 in which the sleeve is a non-metallic sleeve somewhat compressed in the tapered body of the plug.

3. A combination according to claim 1 in further combination with a core tube in which the body is wedged, the same taper which permits the sleeve to be wedged in the body also being adapted to permit the body to be wedged in the core tube.

4. A combination according to claim 1 and in further combination with an apertured panel, the sleeve projecting through the aperture of the panel whereby the panel locates the plug.

5. A dual roll-positioning core plug comprising two plugs having peripherally continuous and slightly tapered hollow conical bodies open at their larger ends and provided at their larger ends with terminal flanges, the flanges being at proximate ends of the plugs and the bodies being telescopically wedged on opposite ends of a sleeve and projecting in opposite directions therefrom and from said flanges.

6. A dual plug according to claim 5 in which said sleeve has adhesive connection with one plug and is only connected frictionally with the other.

7. A dual plug according to claim 5 in which the flanges of the respective plugs are substantially in face contact, the total length of said sleeve extending nearly the entire length of the body portions of the respective plugs.

8. A dual plug according to claim 5 in which the flanges of the respective plugs are spaced in further combination with a panel having an aperture through which the sleeve extends and which is fitted thereto, the flanges engaging opposite faces of said panel.

9. A shipping assembly comprising the combination of a plurality of objects having cores in axial alignment and two core plugs each having a tapered hollow body portion engaged in one of said cores, each of said body portion having its larger end open and provided with a radial flange, and a connecting sleeve internally having its ends wedged telescopically in both of said core plug body portions, the same taper which wedges the respective core plug body portions in the respective cores also permitting the wedging of the connecting sleeve ends in the respective plug body portions for the connection of said plugs.

10. A shipping assembly according to claim 9 in which the shipping assembly includes a confining means and a panel fitted to the confining means and having an aperture into which said sleeve extends.

11. A shipping assembly according to claim 10 in which the confining means comprises a carton and the objects comprise rolls housed in said carton and mounted on cores in which the respective plugs are wedged.

12. A shipping assembly comprising a plurality of rolls having cores in axial alignment, positioning panels adjacent each end of each core, core plugs engaged in the respective cores and having tapered hollow conical bodies wedged frictionally in the said cores, and sleeves extending through the said panels, the end of each sleeve being wedgingly engaged in the body of one such plug.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,118,791 5/1938 Hines 20658 2,424,553 7/1947 Conti 20652 2,823,573 2/ 1958 Vasikonis 83 2,853,185 9/1958 Rollie 206-52 3,233,728 2/1966 Johnson et al 206-52 WILLIAM T. DIXSON, JR., Primary Examiner. 

